Best or worst excursions?

[Sally Forth]

Which excursions would you do again? or NEVER do again?

 

My favorites so far are:

 

Cave Tubing (Belize)

12 metre challenge (St Maarten)

Sting ray city/snorkel (Grand Cayman)

Sea Trek (St Thomas)

 

My least favorites are:

 

Mayan Ruins (Costa Maya) OK But, too hot...

Skyride (St Thomas) Nice view, but again...TOO HOT!

Atlantis (Nassau) Booring!!

 

Please share...

Happy Cruising!!!

I've never had a tour I'd never do again BUT the very worst tour guide I've ever had made for the best memories. Picture an island off the Norwegian coast, on a blustery day in June. Everyone is getting sensible looking Norwegian girls in anoraks ready with their clipboards. We get a girl (literally) straight from LA, dressed to kill. Somehow, this bouncy Jewish/Puerto Rican dark beauty met and married a blonde Lutheran Norwegian fellow and got a tour guide job because of her English skills. She was SO stupid! She asked a woman in the front of the bus if her flashy diamond ring had a real diamond. When the woman said it was, she asked, "How much is it worth?

 

However, she was also like a puppy, eager to please and always pleasant. Some of her gems:

 

"That house is unusual in Kristiansund because it is a special style from England called a Two-Door. Not to say our other houses don't have two doors, but that style is special."

 

"In Norway, they let the grass on the farms grow really really long and then cut it down and let it dry and save it to feed the horses and cows in the winter." A farmer from Minnesota asserted that in Minnesota, they call that "HAY." She smiled indulgently and said, "Well in Norway, they don't have a special name for it like that, so I don't think it would be quite the same."

 

"In Norway, the people live out in the country and there are no city busses, so they have special yellow busses that pick the children up in the morning and then bring them home at night." At first people were upset at the poor quality of our tour but after a while you could see everyone on the bus loosen up and have a great time. We learned nothing about Kristiansund, but we did have a good time.

 

Viv

[Spikesgirl]

Best excursions -

 

Drift snorkle - Huahine (Princess)

terra cotta warriors - Xian("")

Romantic Christchruch - New Zealand ("")

 

Worst -

 

Nagasaki City Tour - Japan (Princess)

snorkle - Ixapa (sp?) (Carnival)

 

Tons of great excursions in between!

 

Charlie

[camNaud]

 

"That house is unusual in Kristiansund because it is a special style from England called a Two-Door. Not to say our other houses don't have two doors, but that style is special."

 

That has to be the best one I've heard yet. Class :D

[sportsterjohn]

Favorites:

Nassau: Stuart Cove snorkle with sharks: the snorkle part is average but the sharks are a blast

Grand Turk: Dive with Blue Water divers. fanstastic walls

Belize: Lamani tour: right out of Indiana Jones

Roatan: Dive with Subway Fantastic reef

Cozumel: Dive, also the dunebuggy tour that is booked via Cozumel homes is a total blast

Jamaica: Canopy / Zip lines

GC: Dive with neptune divers

 

Least favorites

Key West: Dive booked via captains corner (although kids and snorklers may like this trip)

Cancun: Dive with Manta Divers. Nothing but sandy bottom, no reef

Coco Cay: Kayak tour

[mlbcruiser]

Not necessarily in order of how I'd rank them. . . .

 

BEST EXCURSIONS:

 

Stingray City, Grand Cayman - did this twice, but best was not through the ship but w/an outfit that took us to 2 other snorkeling sites as well, incl. Coral Gardens. Really georgeous! (Several boat operators do this tour.)

 

Chankanaab Park on Cozumel - just took a taxi there ourselves. GREAT snorkeling. My husband tried scuba (one on one lesson and "dive" to 30 ft.)there for $50 and loved it so much he got certified the next summer.

 

Dunn's River Falls - again, independently. Just took a cab. (Rejected "guides" on the falls and just did it ourselves.)

 

Barbados - 4x4 Safari/island tour up to the highest point on the island, rode through a banana plantation and over the hills (fun and slightly scary!) to Bathsheba, which is VERY scenic.

 

Moorea - Capt. Heifara's boat/whale watching/snorkeling/feed the sharks & lunch tour. EXCELLENT! And we booked this independently.

 

Huahine, French Polynesia -Marc's Motu Picnic

 

Raitea (also in FP) - Bruno's drift snorkeling (etc.) tour (you are taken to Ta'ha for this). Sealife at the coral gardens is FANTASTIC!

 

Tahiti -4x4 Tour (booked independently but it wasn't w/Patrick - he was full. Can't recall the name of the guy, but fantastic tour. Saw waterfalls and the interior of the island as well as learned about various fruits, etc.

 

French Riviera - tour to Ez (charming, tiny hill town on a precipice WAY up high. Shops built into cave openings). Great views along the way.

 

Istanbul and Kusadasi, Turkey - Nejat's tours (find his address on ports of call boards for Europe or ask for it in a post or it's not "legal" on here to post it) - booked independently. Do all of his offerings, including Orient House nightclub. He adds in extra things and is flexible about sites and takes into account your preferences. Get a group together for this. You truly come away having learned so much! He is meticulous about knowing when the ship is coming, leaving, and stays in touch w/someone on it by cell phone. He gets you where you are supposed to be ON TIME in very comfortable, a/c mini buses and you won't be in a large group. (This guy knows EVERYONE, and therefore gets special treatment! Speaks excellent English and several other languages )

 

Santorini- took a bus to Oia and did not take a formal tour but WOW!!! This place is GEORGEOUS!

 

 

WORST EXCURSIONS:

 

St. Maarten/Martin - Combo submarine/land tour over to Marigot. Not much to see underwater at all and bus ride was boring and took a LONG time! (Having spent a wk. on St. Maarten before, there are much better things to do there!)

 

Rome - independent touring via the hop on/hop off buses. Traffic gets so bad in the summer (and we were there in EARLY June before it gets the worst) that it takes so long to get from point to point that you end up waiting FOREVER when you want to get back on! Some companies are better than others. BEWARE and check them out if you want to do this! Ask how many buses they have running. The more the better.

 

Cozumel - dive/snorkel trip w/Eagle Ray Divers. VERY NICE people, and service was good, but their boats are (or were 2 yrs. ago) older and SLOW. On our's they were trying to accommodate people w/too many differences in skill level. We wasted a good amt. of time docking, picking up an add-on diver couple from a resort. Also, several of us had to ask to be taken to shore to a resort in order to catch a cab to get back to our ship in time! We were therefore given partial refunds w/no hassle from the capt. There was a problem w/the first dive location and 3 snorkelers were left in the water w/a guide who was not even told that the boat was leaving us! They left the snorkelers for well over an hr. - out of site of the boat somewhere near Palancar Reef and the water got rougher. The guide finally had to flag down another boat to call back to our's to come get them! This was the ONLY independent tour we ever had any type of problem with.

 

Hope something on here helps somebody!

[Cuizer2]

cruizer2,

 

10 out of 10 - superb photos from stingray city, love the underwater one.

 

Thank you. All the photos of Stingray City were taken with a disposable underwater camera.

[DeBlonde1]

One of the best: privately booked Cave Tubing in Belize.

 

The worst: Dune buggy tour in Cozumel, you couldn't pay me to do that again.

[DeBlonde1]

One of the best: privately booked Cave Tubing in Belize.

 

The worst: Dune buggy tour in Cozumel, you couldn't pay me to do that again.

[Tigergenesis]

Thank you. All the photos of Stingray City were taken with a disposable underwater camera.

 

What brand underwater camera did you use?

[Melissa at Mohair Meadows]

The best excursions:

1 Oscar Brown Tour in Costa Rica included zip-lining, holding a sloth and shopping.

 

2. Ferry tour through the Panama Canal.

 

3. Grand Cayman Stingwray city.

 

 

The Worst Excursion:

1. None - but I wouldn't do the Tulum trip again because of the heat & long bus ride. But it was worth it to go once.

[Cuizer2]

What brand underwater camera did you use?

 

Fuji & Kodak both make a disposable underwater film camera. I perfer the Fuji camera because its shutter lever is easier to use than Kodak's shutter button when underwater. The Stingray City photos were taken with one of the Fuji cameras.

[ColeandAbby]

I must be the odd gal out. I really did not like the Stingray excursion..:(

[MarylandLady]

Favorites:

 

Stingray Excusion in Grand Cayman

 

Emerald Beach in St. Thomas -- we took the long way to the beach on a sightseeing tour (my sister had never been to St. Thomas) and then we went to a hotel with a private beach for a couple of hours. It was wonderful! There were only 10 of us on the tour and on the beach.

 

My granddaughter's favorite was the swimming with the dolphins in Cozumel. We couldn't wipe the smile off of her face the rest of the trip!

 

Worst:

 

Mayan Ruins and River Wallace in Belize -- bus ride to the ruins was ok, but the ruins -- very very hot and too many bugs! My GD and I left the tour and returned to the air conditioned bus to wait for everyone else! River Wallace boat ride was horrible. Long trip, very very hot, open air boat and we were supposed to see monkeys, etc in the trees - could barely see them and the guide would let us know "there's an alligator" after it went under the water! Miserable trip! Wouldn't go on this again if my life depended on it!

 

Also the city tour of San Juan was horrible. It rained and the bus couldn't take us to the middle of the city like the tour was supposed to and we had to walk forever. The bus tour turned into a major walking tour. The bus was old and rickety and apparently couldn't fit through the streets where we were supposed to be touring. We actually got part of our money back because we ended up taking a cab back to the ship. We specifically took this trip because my sister cannot walk long distances. Next time we will go to a beach!

[claudie]

I must be the odd gal out. I really did not like the Stingray excursion..:(

 

You're not alone. We were disappointed with this excursion thru HAL because of the crowded busride over and then arriving at stingray city to find 100's of people. Yuck!

[Sheffie]

You're not alone. We were disappointed with this excursion thru HAL because of the crowded busride over and then arriving at stingray city to find 100's of people. Yuck!

 

These are a couple of the reasons that many people prefer to book independent excursions.

[NJScrapper]

I also thought Pearl Island Treasure Hunt was awful. Somehow there ended up being a bunch of people who couldn't swim on this excursion, when it clearly said you needed to know how to go on it. DH & I didn't find any oysters. The guys running the excursion went and got all the oysters with pearls in them and gave them to all the pretty girls who couldn't swim. Ticked me off. What a waste of money it was!

[jandjfun]

Not a fan of being herded like cattle onto tour buses AT ALL!

Must agree on the Mayan Ruins in Tulum....long tour bus ride....and it was so hot my eyebrows sweated for the first and only time in my life. My comment: It is no wonder these people died off, it is too freakin' hot to live there. I think they all jumped off the cliff into the ocean to cool off!

This post really made me laugh! I understand your pain. I live in AZ. and it gets about 115 degrees (in the shade) where I live. That's when I discovered eyebrows can sweat!!

My favorite was white water rafting in Costa Rica, our guide had worked on the show "Survivor" and had a lot of tales to tell. She even gave my sister one of her buffs! and least favorite was the city tour in San Juan.

[RockyTopMom]

Favorites:

Horseback Riding with Joni in Skagway (Independent Tour)

 

Oscar Brown Tour (non zip-lining) in Costa Rica (Independent tour)

 

Ship Tour in Costa Maya, bicycling through the small town, kyacking and relaxing on that beautiful beach.

 

Island Wings tour with Michelle in Ketchikan (Independent Tour)

 

Worst:

Cruise line Acapulco City Tour..now I know where all the new hotels are being built and at what cost. Why I need to know this information I have no idea!

[CorbinCatFan]

The best was String Ray City in the Cayman Islands and DePalm Island in Aruba (Did this both times in Aruba).

 

The worst was my first, the garden tour in Freeport. Have to say after that, Freeport has never been a favorite port of call.

[torybruno]

Our favorites included:

 

Stingray sandbar in Grand Caymen with Nativeway Sports; wonderful guides and they even let my cousin drive the boat!

 

Mayfield Falls in Montego Bay Jamaica with A-Z Planners. Mayfield Falls is a mineral spring that flows down in a series of small waterfalls. Not nearly as crowded as Dunns River.

 

Looking forward to cave tubing and zip lining in Belize soon!